Abstractions of Awareness: Aware of What?

Abstract

This chapter presents FN-AAR, an abstract model of awareness systems. The purpose of the model is to capture in a concise and abstract form essential aspects of awareness systems, many of which have been discussed in design essays or in the context of evaluating specific design solutions. The FN-AAR model is described using concepts from simple set theory expressed in the standard Z notation (Spivey, 1992). Z is a formal specification language based on first-order logic and Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory that has become an ISO standard (ISO/IEC, 13568:2002). Its syntax and semantics are based on classical mathematics and allow the abstract specification of systems in a model-oriented way. Apart from its mathematical toolkit for common operations on sets and numbers, Z specifications use elements such as axiomatic definitions and schemas also.